The present invention relates to improvements in turn-around devices for cigarettes or analogous rod-shaped articles. More particularly, the invention relates to improvements in devices which can turn cigarettes or the like end-for-end, for example, to change the orientation of filter-tipped cigarettes or to change the orientation of cigarettes which are provided with printed matter representing the name of the manufacturer, the brand name, the trademark of the manufacturer or other information.
A filter cigarette making machine normally produces filter cigarettes of double unit length wherein a filter rod section of double unit length is located between two plain cigarettes of unit length. Such filter cigarettes are thereupon severed midway between their ends to yield pairs of coaxial filter cigarettes of unit length whose filter tips are adjacent to each other. One filter cigarette of each pair is inverted or turned around end-for-end so that the filter tips of all cigarettes face in the same direction. This is advisable because the filter cigarettes of unit length are thereupon examined for the condition of their tobacco-containing ends and also because such cigarettes must be packed in such a way that all of the filter tips face in the same direction. As a rule, a turn-around device for filter cigarettes of unit length is designed to place the inverted cigarettes into the spaces between the non-inverted cigarettes so that the inverted and non-inverted cigarettes form a single row which consists of parallel cigarettes and wherein each preceding cigarette is in exact alignment with the next-following cigarette.
A presently known turn-around device for cigarettes comprises a turntable with radially extending flutes for cigarettes. A first rotary drum-shaped conveyor delivers cigarettes into successive flutes at a first transfer station and the cigarettes thereupon travel with the turntable along an arc of 180.degree. prior to being transferred (at a second transfer station) onto a second drum-shaped conveyor which is coaxial with the first conveyor but is driven in the opposite direction. A drawback of such turn-around device is that, when the number of cigarettes to be inverted unit of time is very high, the intervals for transfer of cigarettes from the first conveyor onto the turntable and from the turntable onto the second conveyor are extremely short. Moreover, the cigarettes are likely to be damaged or destroyed if the speed of the turntable and/or of the first or second conveyor deviates only slightly from a predetermined speed.
It is also known to invert cigarettes during travel with a turntable which carries pivotable channel-shaped holders for cigarettes. The holders receive cigarettes from a first conveyor at a first station and deliver inverted cigarettes to a second conveyor at a second station.